The Weslaco Independent School District Board of Trustees not only approved recruiting and retention stipends for employees Tuesday, but approved stipends over double the amount it was originally considering.
The board approved $5,000 stipends for all employees except for the district leadership team, an increase from the $2,000 stipends the district was looking into last week.
The stipends will be paid out of federal ESSER funds in two $2,500 chunks, one in December and one in June.
Surprisingly, the decision had the support of Superintendent Dino Coronado, who told trustees last week that he would recommend against approving stipends.
Last week, Coronado said he felt stipends were a poor financial choice and said he’d favor long-term, sustainable salary increases — though he noted trustees may disagree with him, especially in an election year.
Coronado attributed his change in heart Tuesday to crushing some more numbers and the importance of employees.
“We crunched some numbers, we did so many things at the last minute and we figured it out…” he said. “We have the money and they deserve it. We need to take care of our teachers and we need to take care of our staff.”
The $5,000 stipends will cost the district about $11 million overall.
“With our enrollment on the rise, I think we can compensate some other things. We have a healthy fund balance as well…So we are in good shape,” Coronado said.
News of the stipends was greeted by applause and general praise on the board, who were in a particularly good mood about it.
“It comes at a very, very, very crucial time, and we can’t thank you enough for the effort. It’s obvious that you do listen to what’s going on. You’re not as hard headed as some people think,” joked Board President Armando Cuellar. “But we’ve always respected what you had to do, that’s what you had to do. And you came through like a champ tonight.”
Local districts prioritized approving stipends this budget cycle, often peering over district lines to see how much competitors plan on paying.
This summer PSJA ISD and Edinburg CISD both — likely not coincidentally — approved $4,500 in stipends.
Coronado noted that Weslaco’s $5,000 is at the top of stipend plans in the Rio Grande Valley, a public relations opportunity that was not lost on trustees.
“Can I say, can Matt Wilson [of The Monitor] write a story on that?” Trustee Jaclyn Sustaita said. “Something positive.”
